Dying Storm of Black
by eddases19
Summary: In the hours after the Iifa Tree rose up and Kuja died, Zidane fights for his life inside his own mind. Rated for themes. Chapter 3 up and story complete.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fan fic – ever! Normally I write fantasy of my own creation or science fiction, but I don't normally dabble in the worlds of other people. BUT with that said, I owe a lot of my work to the likes of George Lucas, Russel T. Davies, Peter Jackson and, perhaps most importantly Hironobu Sakaguchi. This first story – which isn't really a story, just a series of thoughts – is based on one of Sakaguchi-san's works, Final Fantasy IX.

Set after the Iifa Tree apparently destroyed Kuja and Zidane, this is a documentation of Zidane's thoughts over the first few hours of his captivity in the Tree. It isn't going to be long – maybe three or four chapters of 6 or 700 words at a time – but it is going to be pretty dark, with contemplations of death and despair, so you have been warned. Read and review, if you please.

Darkness.

All around him was darkness, sheer obsidian blackness surrounding him, drowning him with its coldness, crushing him with its presence. If this was what dying was, he wanted death to come quickly.

But was this dying? He could still feel Kuja's body beneath his own, still warm from life, and somehow comforting as it lay beneath his own. It was a strange paradox of what he had been in life, the angel of death that had created so much havoc and distress throughout Gaia being a comfort to his brother.

Brother. The word seemed alien, but Zidane knew that it was true. The concept of Kuja being his brother was strange and somewhat disturbing, but it was true, and after what Kuja had done in saving the party at the Iifa Tree mere minutes ago – or was it days? – Zidane found that he was almost proud of Kuja. He was a changed man at the end, a man who was repentant and remorseful, who simply saw death as his punishment. Now, death had come and the warmth and comfort was being lost from the lifeless body.

Zidane wondered where the others were now. Dagger could be at home, in Alexandria. She might be in one of the libraries, surrounded by scholars, searching for a way to free him from his woody prison. Steiner might be by her side, trying to persuade her that he was lost, that there was no hope of ever recovering even his body. Vivi could be at the Black Mage Village, trying to persuade the Genomes and the Mages to come and help. Zidane exhaled a long, slow breath. He doubted that the others even knew he was missing yet.

Dagger's face swam into Zidane's vision and stayed for a moment, its smoothness and innocence facing him. He would never see her face again, Zidane knew it. He would never smell her soft scent, hear her soothing voice. He loved her, he knew that, and deep down he knew she felt the same way. How would she cope with losing him? For a second, Dagger's face was distraught, distorted with misery, as it had been that night Atmos had destroyed Lindblum. It was heart-wrenching. Zidane knew he couldn't put her through that. No lover wanted to put his beloved through that, not if it could be avoided. He would get out of this prison and see her again, be united forever with her. He _would_ be the Queen's consort.

But he knew that escape seemed impossible. The Iifa Tree had created an impenetrable black barrier, with no chance of escape. Death was the only way out of the prison.

"_Death is an option, not the inevitable,"_ a voice rang out in Zidane's head, gravely and ancient. Garland's voice, as it had spoken to Zidane outside Memoria. _"Where there is life there is hope. You can survive this, Zidane. You can go back to your woman. Believe that, and you will live."_

Garland's presence seemed to be in the blackness with him along with Kuja's dying aura. For a moment, it was startling, but after that, it was comforting. It reinforced Zidane's will to survive. He _would _survive. He didn't have an option. He didn't have a choice.

He remembered what Dagger had said, that whenever she was lonely or sad, she would sing that song, the song she had sung in Dali, in Lindblum. Gathering resolve, Zidane started to sing.


	2. Chapter 2

Here it is, chapter 2 of the story. Again, nothing too long, mostly because I haven't the time to write anything long outside essays and revision exercises, but hopefully it'll be a good continuation of Zidane's tale of the battle inside his mind inside the Iifa Tree. It picks up a day after chapter 1 left off. Enjoy.

Zidane could move now. The branches had loosened their grip on the platform Zidane and Kuja's body were perched upon, and Zidane welcomed the chance to move around, if only to roll off Kuja's body, which was cold and stiff as metal. While it had been a comfort at first, it was now somewhat eerie and disconcerting to be lying atop a dead body, especially when that body was the body of the angel of death.

Zidane reflected on how close he had come to being the next angel of death, and then on Mikoto following him, disrupting that cycle of souls that Garland had talked of and that Kuja had tried to do. This tree had been a part of that plan, providing the mist that gave Kuja his early weapons, the black mages. But Zidane had never really come close to being Kuja's successor as the angel of death. Instead, he had fought against Kuja and had saved the planet, seemingly at the cost of his own life.

The fortified feeling that had been within him since he had sung Dagger's song started to ebb away, along with his hope of seeing her again. Whatever Garland had said, this was going to be it. This was his dying place, the storm of black that would take his life from him. He sat up. That sort of thinking was futile and defeatist. If he believed, then he could get out of it. Survival wasn't a choice, it was a requirement. He _had _to do it.

The words came to his throat and he sang them without thinking about it. His worries drained away like water. He was going to survive. He pulled a dagger from his belt. Knowing it was the dagger that Dagger had taken her name from, and that it was the same dagger that Dagger had cut her hair with after she had got her voice back helped Zidane focus. It was a blade that had helped Dagger out of her troubles, why couldn't it help Zidane?

Handling it with care, he stabbed upwards. He heard a shriek from without and the wood spasmed. Zidane had to hold on for dear life for a moment as the wood jerked this way and that like a dying snake. When it had finished its violent reaction to Zidane's blade, Zidane cut into it again, drawing another shriek from outside the pod of air where Zidane and Kuja were trapped. Inspired, Zidane cut into it again. For an hour, Zidane was like this, hacking at one area of the ceiling of the air pocket, wanting more than anything to see a sliver of light, the hope leaving him more and more as he cut time after time.

"Come _on!_" he shouted in his anger at the living wood that defied him. His patience leaving him, he slumped back down to the ground, lying back and lying spreadeagled on the floor, thinking about Dagger. It really did look like he was never going to see her again. How long was it that a man could go without water? How long without food? He was certain that neither was as long as how long he could go without seeing Dagger. Before long he would die, and he knew it.

But what was death like? he found himself wondering. Was it like everyone imagined it to be? Just everything going black and being unaware of anything any more? Or was it different? Was someone separated from his or her body, but still aware of the world? Did the soul die with the body, or did it live on afterwards? Would he yet be able to see Dagger in death, be reunited with her?

Hope flooded him for a moment, before he realised that death might not be like that. It probably was the blackness that people imagined, and there probably was nothing more after the body had died. Hopelessness filling him, he allowed himself to slip into despair.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm back after a short break and writing my own stuff, and I'm back in the world of Final Fantasy IX to continue and complete the tale inside the Iifa Tree. There's a change of direction in this chapter, but as always, reviews are welcome. Spoilers for the game are included in this chapter, so be warned.

Lying flat on his back, Zidane knew he'd lost. Closing his eyes, he let his failure wash over him and carry his hope with it. He'd been trying to escape his woody prison for such a long time, believing that he could do it, but to find that he couldn't…

He had always known he was in a race against time. A human can only survive without water for three days, less in hot, arid places such as this. His time was approaching, and he could no longer fight against it. It was better to give in gracefully to what was going to happen any time soon.

Closing his eyes, he saw Dagger's face smiling back at him. She was so real in his head, so close he could almost reach out and touch her. He smiled weakly, knowing that she was safe. For a few moments, he remembered what had happened with her, how their adventure had snowballed into a fight for the world against Kuja and his near-irresistible power. He remembered when he first set eyes on Dagger, when she had bowled him over – both metaphorically and literally!

The memories overcame him for a moment, and he was transported to other places on Gaia, other times with Dagger. There was Dali and the cargo ship, where he had been a little too eager to follow Dagger up the stairs. "Ooh, soft," was what he had said, and he smiled again, remembering Dagger's reaction, reverting back to being the princess of Alexandria in her anger, which had soon subsided after the third Black Waltz had appeared. Then there was the entry to Terra, where he had ridden the wake and had waved to Dagger from afar before plummeting into the void and Terra itself. Arriving back at the Iifa Tree, the last time he had seen her, holding her steady for a moment and the look of despair in her eye as he set off on his mission to rescue Kuja, who had held the Tree back until the team could get away, sapping his own life energy…

_Kuja…_

He had stopped the Tree from its violent reaction, holding it back from the party until they were safe. Why couldn't Zidane also manipulate the Tree? He was from Terra. He was the designated successor to Kuja, supposedly more powerful and resilient than his older brother. Why couldn't he try to manipulate the Tree?

"Garland, how do it do it?" Zidane asked thin air, hoping that Garland could still reach him. "How can I manipulate this Tree? How can I get out of here?"

Nothing.

"Garland, please help me!"

Still nothing.

"Dammit!" Zidane kicked out in frustration. He wanted to live, nothing more. He wanted the Iifa Tree to retreat, to free him from this cage. He wanted to see Dagger again, the woman he loved. He saw the tears in her eyes again. He _would _get free of the Tree. He was going to do it for her.

The Tree was connected to both Terra and Gaia in some way, as well as being the gateway to Memoria. Zidane understood the Terran tongue. He had been to Memoria and Terra, and his home was Gaia. He should be able to do it, especially if he was more powerful than Kuja, as Garland had claimed. Zidane probed his own mind for the separate parts of his psyche, trying to find the seam where his Gaian and Terran parts joined.

And there it was. His mind split into two, almost inseparable parts, joined almost unnoticeably. One side Terran, the other Gaian. His probe caressed the seam of the two parts, trying to find a weak point by stroking his mind's fingers along the join. He found the weak spot, and his probe drove into the weakness, exposing dull void inside his head. The pain he felt was like a migraine, head-splitting and concentration breaking. But outside his head he could hear the screams of the Iifa Tree.

Zidane could sense the Iifa Tree now. Fighting back the pain, he concentrated on the life beyond the void and imposed his own will upon it. The Tree screamed again, and Zidane could sense movement in the prison. He continued to impose his will on the Tree, forcing it to do his bidding, forcing it to remove the prison, to uncage him and Kuja. A chink of light appeared in the walls of the gaol, followed by another. The light blinded Zidane, his eyes unaccustomed to the brightness. For a few seconds he could only see white. When his eyesight returned after what felt like an age, the prison had disappeared. Fighting to keep control of the Tree, Zidane pulled himself up and hauled Kuja's body onto his back before, battling to stay conscious, starting to make his way to the outside.

Knowing he was going to make it out of the Tree kept Zidane going even when he wanted to stop. More than once he was on the verge of giving up as he slowly left the Tree and the surrounding area behind, making his way to the nearest source of water. If he didn't drink soon, he'd be dead, he knew. Finally, he found the river and the mountain path, where he slumped down next to the river and drank deeply, letting the water refresh him, feeling his connection to the Iifa Tree leave his gradually, allowing the two parts of his mind to knit together once more.

The he set off again, pausing only to bury Kuja. Alexandria and its monarch awaited. It was a long way to the Mist Continent.


End file.
